A step-by-step guide to writing short daily emails that create new customers

Send your mailing list an email every day?

Surely that will have them hitting unsubscribe within a week?

Nobody wants to read a marketing email every day, do they?

The answers to those questions are not the ones you think.

But only if you build loyalty and offer such value in each email that they never even consider hitting unsubscribe.

Right now you are going to learn how you can create daily emails that provide instant value to subscribers on your mailing list, while minimising your unsubscribe rate.

If you are going to adopt this strategy and send daily emails, then those emails need to connect instantly. This means closely understanding what your audience needs and wants and giving it to them straight - and in as few words as possible.

So the first question is....do you understand why people subscribed to your mailing list?

The Really Quick Guide To Understanding Your Subscribers Motivation

People join your mailing list for two reasons.

First, they want something you've offered them and are prepared to give you their email address to get it.

Second, they really love what you write and are happy to receive more of it, for the time being.

The first group of subscribers I have described are the ones that are going to click unsubscribe more quickly if you fail to deliver.

They also make up the majority of most mailing lists.

And they are the reason why you need to engage instantly in your email marketing.

Understanding exactly why that person is reading your content is the key to keeping your subscription rate high. As soon as you go off at a tangent, or even change the length and style of email you deliver, you are running the risk of people jettisoning you.

So when you plan a daily email you need to think in terms of instant engagement, reassuring the reader that you are not going to waste their time, and delivering real value that builds the relationship over time.

Is The Money Really In The List?

The answer to this classic marketing question is yes. But only if you build a strong relationship with the people on your mailing list.

If you fail to build trust and offer value, and instead hammer them daily, weekly, with sales messages and offers, you will not make the most of the list you build.

What we are talking about here is relationship marketing. It's perfectly possible to make more money from a list of a few thousand subscribers than it is from a list of a few hundred thousand subscribers if you nurture that list the correct way and for the long term.

The key to nurturing your subscriber list is to look at them as individuals rather than a list at all.

They are potential clients and human beings with hopes, fears and aspirations in exactly the same way as you are.

[bctt tweet="Your subscribers are human beings with hopes, fears and aspirations in exactly the same way as you are. "]

Email marketing in the modern age is really about selling without selling.

The money is in the list, as long as you don't mention you are after theirs.

So How Do I Market To People Without Selling Them Anything?

At the heart of this question sits your own understanding of your potential customers needs.

If you understand who your potential customer exactly is, then you can speak to them conversationally and offer them information which will build their perception of your expertise and move them closer to a sale.

They are tolerating receiving your emails because they perceive you as being able to offer them value now, or in the future.

Once you understand exactly what your subscription list wants, then you can build informational emails that over time create a rock solid foundation you to sell to them from.

Unless your email subscriber gets to know you, like you and trust you, you don't stand a chance of selling them anything.

Once you build that trust then over time you will see your sales from those emails start to creep up.

Understanding how to put this information together to create a strategy that achieves this is the key to your success, so let's look at it right now.

How To Create A Multi-layered Email Marketing Campaign

Any high quality email campaign will contain three interlocking elements, working together at the same time to produce the desired result.

Firstly you have to have a clear vision of what the overall goal is for anyone subscribing to your mailing list. Usually this will be making a specific product or service purchase.

Secondly you need to create a trail of information and build rapport through the entire email sequence. This is the glue that will link all the emails together.

Thirdly, each email should have its own individual structure and identity. It should embrace elements of the two things we have just described, while also delivering a self-contained message that can in itself be compelling enough to provoke further action.

Unless these three elements are all in place and flowing throughout your campaign then your unsubscribe rates will be higher, simply because you are not delivering a valuable and ongoing chain of information.

The power of email marketing is in nurturing leads over time using this multi-layered strategy. In each email you build rapport with your leads, by allowing them to get to know, like and trust you a little bit more.

In each email your also delivering a single nugget that can help to build that informational relationship, or provoke them to take action towards making a purchase right then.

And finally, each email should build on the overall message you are trying to deliver about the quality of the product or service you offer, which you hope will encourage your readers to lose a little more resistance.

How To Create A Frequent Marketing Email That Stops People Saying "Yuck!"

As we've just discussed, you need to look at each email you send on three levels.

So it's not just a case of bashing out a good story and hoping someone will buy into what you're telling them. You have to have a structure and strategy that flows throughout the entire campaign, sometimes over months or years.

And when we speak here of a long-term strategy it should then become obvious that at the heart of every email you write lays consistency. Consistency in your message, angle and personality. Your unsubscribe rates will increase if one email feels disjointed amongst the others.

Building on what we have discussed here, it should now also be obvious that your subject lines and content should not be condescending or patronising.

The modern consumer will spot tactics designed to outwit them straight away. As an example of this, you may well have seen the tactic I'm about to describe to you here.

You will receive an offer email telling you how great something is and how you need to act now in order to take advantage of it, as it shuts in X hours.

Then an hour later, you receive another email telling you there was a mistake in the first email.

But the truth is, as we all know, there wasn't a mistake in the first email. It's simply an excuse to do a "strike while the iron is hot" follow-up ,with the aim of not antagonising you by lying to you about the reason for sending it.

That sort of morality would have me, and most other people, hitting unsubscribe.

The tactics you should employee for each email you send are to display honesty, integrity and offer value every single time.

How To Create A Marketing Email Your Readers Will Love

Each email subject should be interesting and encourage people to read the first paragraph. Short titles work best, as your reader will be scanning their inbox and you need to grab their attention instantly.

You should then hit them in that first paragraph with an interesting statement, or fact or question.

Whichever you choose, it should link into the reason they are on your mailing list in the first place and hook them into reading on.

Then discuss the point you want to make and sign off with a call to action.

If you are sending daily emails then each self-contained piece should contain a manageable number of paragraphs. Usually no more than a handful of paragraphs, each containing 1-3 sentences.

The other aim is to allow the person to see the entire email in their browser window, or as much as possible if on a smaller browser such as a mobile. If they can see the scrollbar will need to go a long way down to get to the end, you have already put a lot of people off.

Each email should therefore be a bite sized story, that can be digested in around a minute.

If you have more to say, there is nothing to stop you using the tactic of linking to that additional content from the email. You may have a great story to tell, or a great sales pitch, so give it to them as a choice rather than make them read it in email - because they usually won't bother.

Always Follow-Up On Your Initial Email

I've already described you how sending a follow-up that is trying to outmanoeuvre the reader mentally will often backfire on you. Insulting the intelligence of somebody you want to do business with is never a good idea.

But that doesn't mean you should never follow-up, you definitely should.

Your follow-up should offer additional value to the reader.

One great tactic is to construct a follow-up that says you have had a great response to your previous email. You can then use the follow-up to answer a question that you say has been asked frequently.

This allows you and opportunity to reinforce the key message you were delivering in the initial email.

It can also be a great opportunity to get the reader to click through to your website. Creating a frequently asked questions page based around the email topic, can build trust and encourage further action towards the sale being made.

If you are sending emails daily then each email is in itself potentially a follow-up. Don't be afraid of reinforcing a point through multiple emails, to build even more trust and knowledge in the reader.

Don't Let People Think You are Making It Up As You go Along

If you are sending frequent emails then people will quickly get used to the style and quality you deliver.

This is why you should always plan your emails in advance and construct them in advance.

The time you will be in danger of losing subscribers most is if they feel you have just thrown something at them because you were in a hurry.

If it's an autoresponder campaign then there's no reason why you cannot create 30 days worth of emails in advance. You can then always make sure you are crafting the next stage of the campaign before you start sending it.

The way to lose subscribers and drive yourself insane is to try and come up with an email each day that is fresh and addresses your ongoing multilevel strategy.

Time taken to prepare an entire series of short, intelligent and valuable pieces will pay greater dividends in the long run. You will be able to deliver real value to your sales prospect this way.

Bonus Tips That Will Stop People Deleting Your Emails And Unsubscribing From Your List

There are several simple things you can do to ensure that people continue to read your emails every single time you send them.

The first thing you should do is to include a real reply to address.

Nothing is more infuriating than feeling you have been spammed. I don't know about you, but when I receive an email from an email address that starts with "noreply@" I feel angry and alienated.

How dare they send me this stuff and not even want to hear what I have to say, or answer any of the questions I may have?

I make a point of not only supplying my real email address to my marketing list, but openly inviting people to reply. That is the personal touch that stops the reader from feeling like they are having low-grade rubbish thrown at them.

The reader should also have a clear idea of who the email is from. This is why your email marketing list should always get to know you personally through your anecdotes. By using your real name in the from field, and in your sign off, you are building a relationship with the reader.

The final thing you can do is to try and turn the unsubscribe moment into a positive one.

You should of course have a clear unsubscribe option in your emails anyway, as this builds trust in your integrity - and it's the law in many parts of the world!

But you can also turn the usual cold unsubscribe page into an opportunity. When somebody clicks to unsubscribe from your list, why not ask if there's anything you can do to make them not unsubscribe?

Offer them an incentive, a personal chat with you, something that will make them stop and think about unsubscribing. By showing you are different to the other emails they are unsubscribing from, you can sometimes change their mind and build even more trust.

When Are You Going To Start Your Next Email Marketing Campaign?

I suggest you start planning your next email marketing campaign as soon as possible, using the information you have gained in this blog post.

So do something different. Build emails that work on different levels and that build trust in you personally.

And if you haven't got a mailing list, or even an online business, then now is the time to start thinking about doing it.

My Automated Business System includes a full autoresponder email sequence, uniquely constructed for your product or service, that will help to do exactly what we have discussed in this article.

On top of that, you can learn directly from me on how you can continue to create great emails that will turn more people into loyal customers throughout the year of marketing mentoring that I offer to all Automated Business System members.